Featured Articles

Does Your Daughter Suffer From Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)?By Barry Herbach, LCSWDoes your daughter suffer from borderline personality disorder (BPD)? Having a daughter with BPD will not only effect your child but also affects you and everyone who cares about her. Women with BPD have difficulty controlling or regulating their emotions and behavior. This difficulty can take a heavy toll on parents, partners, family members, and friends. Parents who have children with BPD can tell countless stories of instances in which their daughter was beginning to function better or to take on more responsibility and then suddenly went into crisis. See full article

Building Mental Toughness in our Young AthletesBy Christina Szarka, MSW MSTLDoes your young athlete’s self confidence rely on their coach’s feedback? It is often said an athlete’s performance is based largely on their mental state, in reality it may be as much as 90%. Competitive coaches often do not have the time to focus on each player’s individual success. Their role is to build a team that will win. This can be a problem if your child is involved in youth sports and their confidence in their abilities is formed from the beliefs of coaches, teammates or even parents. See full article

The Long Term Impact of Parent Alienation Syndrome (PAS)By Christina Szarka, MSW, MSTLMany factors contribute to healthy development in young people. However, children who have suffered through a divorce must try to maintain strong family relationships with both parents. A strong component to children thriving through a divorce is being shielded from parental conflicts. However, in many cases parents cannot separate their angry and negative feelings from their spouse and end up manipulating their children in an attempt to bolster their own importance and parental identity. This creates situations where children feel pressure to choose sides with one parent or the other. See full article

Loving YourselfBy Julie A. Levin, MA, MFTThere is a lot of talk about self love. But if you don't feel it, the words have no meaning. And if you've been judging or blaming yourself for not being enough or being too much, then the idea of loving yourself might even seem wrong. Yet, self love is an essential part of having a good life. When you feel friendly, kind, appreciative and tender toward yourself, you have a buffer against depression, anxiety, trauma, rejection, loss, and bad relationships. I often tell clients, "You are the roommate who will never leave." Do you really want … See full article

Breaking-UpBy Daniel A. Linder, MFTNote: The following article, “Breaking-up,” is best suited for those in the throes of a ‘bad’ relationship, who know it’s ‘bad,’ may want to get out, but feel stuck and are looking for an exit strategy. Mindfulness is a running theme. “Breaking-up” is about understanding what you are trying to accomplish, what you need to and what it takes to get there. It’s intended as an instructional map that shows you the way out of unhealthy relationships and into healthy, emotionally nourishing ones. It’s empowerment through awareness, understanding and action. See full article

Simple Strategies for Sailing Through the HolidaysBy Dylan Mariah, RN, LMHC, MA, E-RYTYou have to wonder sometimes why the winter holidays can’t be spread out more evenly over the year. From the end of October through after the New Year, it seems that we barely recover from one holiday and the next one is upon us. It doesn’t help that we start receiving Christmas and Thanksgiving sales promotions in October or that stores put out the next holiday’s items so early. Even with that, there is a lot to celebrate from late October through January! We have less than a month between Halloween and Thanksgiving with Veteran’s Day in between them. We have a month between … See full article

The Back to School BluesBy Sophia Greenberg, LMFTSo, you spent the last few weeks checking off items on the back to school shopping list, buying new backpacks and new school clothes- all the fun stuff. It has been a long, hot summer and you have been looking forward to sending your children back into the loving arms of their teachers, right? Maybe not. In theory, after a long summer of having young children run around at home with limited structure and routine, the thought of the routine of the school day sounds appealing. But who does it really appeal to, … See full article

What Really Matters?By Karen Kingsley, Ph.D.What is truly important to you? If you give yourself a few moments to imagine looking back on your life from an advanced age, what do you want to see your life as having been about? The question can sometimes feel too big and broad to answer, yet investing the time and effort to clarify your values as an ongoing practice can not only protect you from being disappointed in your future answer to that ultimate question, but can also help you to maximize your experience of meaning and fulfillment here and now. See full article

From Purging to PausingBy Dylan Mariah, RN, LMHC, MAIf we have a home with a yard we may want to cut away the underbrush when bushes are overgrown and choking off new life. We cut back the trees at the end of the summer to allow a fuller expression of their beauty the next year. We do a clean sweep of the lawn before winter so that the leaves don’t prevent the grass from “breathing” and strengthening their root systems. We say “Just get rid of it!” when we are cleaning out our basements and see that we have been hanging on to things we should have thrown out long ago. See full article

How Long It Takes to GrieveBy Dylan Mariah, RN, LMHC, MAI was talking to someone recently about grieving after the death of a loved one. I’ve had these discussions quite a few times. With people grieving the loss of a loved one years after they have died who worry that they “can’t get over it.” With people who are feeling impatient with someone else’s grieving process and wondering if they are “hanging on” to the sad feelings. See full article

"Accept my difficult emotions? What does that even mean?"By Karen Kingsley, Ph.D.In mindfulness-based approaches to therapy we often talk about "acceptance" of difficult or painful thoughts, feelings, and sensations. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), one of the newer cognitive-behavioral therapies that incorporates mindfulness as well as values clarification, promotes acceptance as a vital part of developing psychological health and flexibility. Unfortunately, many people’s initial reaction when they hear that is: "That's not what I want; I want to get rid of those feelings!" and, … See full article

Letting Go of the PastBy Dr. Amy Austin R.N., Psy.D., LMFTHow many times do we catch ourselves thinking, ruminating, trying to change and wishing for a do over regarding our past histories? We are triggered by an old song, certain definable smell, movie, or anything that rouses our senses and takes us back to that suspended moment in time. Usually, the thought tends to lead to guilt and/or shame which our critical self hones in on like a bee to a flower. And, there we are. Not connected to the present moment, living life unconsciously, and unaware. See full article

Families With AbuseBy Roni Weisberg-Ross, LMFTAbusive situations in families do not happen in isolation. It is neither bad luck, nor is it the fault of the victim of abuse. Abuse happens within a culture of abuse. That is, there is something that is handed down over the generations that encourages those who abuse and allow those around the abuser to ignore what is happening. While the abuser is certainly responsible for his/her actions, there are other family members who are complicit by their passivity or inability to recognize the signs. See full article

Stress Weakens the Immune SystemBy Dr. Eva WitkowskaHealth research shows that prolonged stress has a detrimental effect on our health. Prolonged stress makes you more susceptible to illness, and once you are sick it will take longer to heal. Stress will make you age faster. Suzanne Segerstrom, PhD, and Gregory Miller, PhD reported findings from 300 empirical studies describing the relationship between psychological stress and the immune system. They found that acute and prolonged stressors weaken the immune system on both the cellular and hormonal level. See full article

Couples: Getting Past the HurtBy Diane Thorp, LCSWOften Couples come to me asking for surefire ways to get beyond the initial intensity of their pain after a hurtful argument with their partner. Although no surefire "fix–it" answers exist, mainly because much depends on personal attributes each partner possesses, there are strategies that can make an impact towards healing after an explosive argument between a couple. See full article

To Change or Not To ChangeBy Joseph R Scrivani, MA, LCSWA wiser person than I once said that the only constant in life is change. Oh, the irony! The process of change is all around us – seasons change, fashions change, our bodies and our moods change. We’ve written books, songs and poems about it and even taken photographs and films to record the process. Yet, for a great many people, even the prospect of change is wrought with dread and anxiety. Feeling anxious and upset about change does not mean … See full article

Stepfamilies: What Makes Them Unique?By Sharon Winkler, LICSW, MACA quick look around our communities reveals that stepfamilies are commonplace in our society and becoming more so. Despite the fact that living in a stepfamily has become a common experience, there is surprisingly little information available to families to help them navigate this complex life transition. If one searches for guidance at the local bookstore or at the public library, one will find many books devoted to divorce yet very few devoted to remarriage. This is puzzling and unfortunate. See full article

Dreams as a Portal to the SelfBy Jan Nakao, LCSWAll of the early pioneers of depth psychology, Sigmund Freud, C.G. Jung and Alfred Adler were courageous men who explored the territory of the unconscious. In 1900, after graduating from medical school Jung discovered Freud’s book called The Interpretation of Dreams which stupefied him. After returning to the book 3 years later he said to Freud, “I discovered how it linked with my own ideas.” Jung’s growing appreciation of Freud lead to their 6 year collaboration during which time modern psychoanalysis was born. See full article

Play into TherapyBy Jan Nakao, LCSWPlay has been recognized since the time of Plato who said "you can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation." If we go forward to the 1900’s in England, play therapy began to flourish beginning with the work of Anna Freud, daughter of Sigmund Freud, Melanie Klein and Margaret Lowenfeld. They posited the theoretical foundations for the therapeutic use of play. Each tradition is connected by the central proposition that play transmits and communicates the child’s unconscious experiences, desires, thoughts and emotions. See full article

Balancing Me Myself and I plus OneBy Dr. Shannon BarnesResearch has shown that many factors including biological makeup and life experiences can influence a person’s mental health. Physical fitness, social relationships, family cohesion, cognitions, perceptions and spiritual beliefs have all been determined to be influential factors of the development or lack of development of mental health needs. However, this influence deserves to be explored from a new perspective. This article will provide some current research while exploring how the balance between these factors actually influence mental health symptoms. See full article

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